Thursday, 26 January 2012

Thank you to the lovely Teresa Ashby for passing on to me the Sweet Blogger Award.

So here we go, seven things about me.

1. When I was younger my grandfather owned a farm and the early autumn months would find me in the kitchen making jams, crumbles and pies – those were the days when I had time.

2. I’m not a big pudding maker and I haven’t actually made a pie or crumble in years (see above), but I am a dab hand at chocolate profiteroles.I don’t usually get to eat them though because my boys get to them first.

3. I have a hankering for Bailey’s ice cream, made at the Cheshire Ice Cream farm.When the boys were little their outdoor play area always used to be a good excuse to visit and stock up on supplies – but hey? Who needs an excuse?

4. My favourite chocolates in the Milk Tray box are the fudge ones, followed closely by coffee creams.

5. When I was little I always used to insist that my mum made me coffee cake for my birthday – I can see a trend here.

6. I’ve just discovered a Cadbury’s seconds shop close to me – it’s done my waistline no favours what so ever.

7. My favourite Cadbury’s bar is Fruit & Nut, but I also like Crunchies, Cream Eggs, Whispers, Fry’s Chocolate Cream, Caramel bars – oh dear the list goes on, and I didn’t think I had that much of a sweet tooth!

Thursday, 12 January 2012

I spend a lot of time working from different computers and struggle to keep everything up to date and backed up. And we all know how much panic that can cause if it all goes wrong. Most of the time I save my work to a usb stick and try to copy any updated files across to my computer.But I don't always manage to keep things up to date and I'm paranoid about losing the usb stick.

I've heard of the web based system - Cloud computing and it seems like a good solution for someone in my position.But I'm not that clued up on the latest IT solutions so I was wonderinganyone has any experience of Cloud and if so can you recommend a company who provide this as cheaply as possible? Any help would be much appreciated.

Any other options would be much appreciated, preferably good, free ones!

Tuesday, 10 January 2012

Back in the good old days, when the children were young, birthday parties consisted of twenty to thirty children and two hours when you wanted to invest in ear plugs.

Nowadays the numbers are much lower but the duration - well it seems to last a lifetime because of the dreaded sleepover.

Last Saturday afternoon I took possession of two extra seven year olds, fed them, kept them entertained and tried to get them to bed and to sleep before midnight. I don't really know if they slept - they were doing a quiet pretence if nothing else.

The next morning I cajoled them into eating breakfast, took them to the cinema and then out to lunch. It cost roughly the same as it did in the old days. After that I took them home.

Then I handed my own children over to my husband and locked myself in the bathroom for a two hour soak in the bath and a good read.

Thursday, 5 January 2012

Whilst everyone else is celebrating the return to normal after the festivities, we are entering into a new zone of celebration. Eight years ago today I gave birth to my youngest child. I always feel sorry for him having his birthday at this time of year, at a time when everyone is jaded from a party atmosphere. And whilst I am usually fed it with it myself, I always do my best to try and make it special for him. It's not his fault he was born at this time of year but it could have been worse, he was due on Christmas Eve and I keep joking that if he was, I was going to call him Jesus - it is a joke!

At the moment he loves school so the fact that his birthday always seem to fall on the first day back isn't too traumatic, but I'm sure there will come a time. This year we've held back some of the best presents for today, so the smile on his face when he opened them was well worth the wait. We've been out with his Nanna for a birthday tea, and at the weekend he's having a sleepover with some friends and a cinema trip followed by a bit of a party with some of our friends, and then next weekend another party tea with family hosted by Grandma.

I hope I've done him proud, he certainly seems happy, but as every year, I will be glad when life can truly get back to normal?

Monday, 2 January 2012

﻿Rather a belated New Year's post, I'm afraid. In fact, Christmas seems to have passed in a bit of a blur. It's been wonderful spending time with family and friends, some of whom I haven't seen in a long time, but it has been hard work too. I'm going back to work after having two weeks off but I can't say I feel rested. I know I'm very lucky to be surrounded by family and friends though, so sometimes you just have to accept the exhaustion.

Now it's a new year and as ever I'm full of optimism for the year ahead. My new year's resolutions can be cut and pasted year on year. I'm going to be more focussed on my writing, I'm going to declutter my house, get my life organised, loose weight and get fit.

So this year, whilst my intentions are the same, I'm simply going to say that I want to think of a way to make more use of my time. I'm either going to have to stop watching tele, stop sleeping or find some other way to find ways of being more productive.I know I run the risk of the same blog post in 2013 but I really hope not.

Anyway, happy new year to you all and wish you luck with all your best intentions for 2012.

ASPIRING AUTHOR

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About Me

Hi
I'm a working mum of two young boys who is desperately trying to make it is a writer. I'm into contemporary women's literature, but also am a little bit besotted with social history and would love to be able to write something about the lives of women in times gone by.